Original Posting: http://pagina20.uol.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21557&Itemid=37 (Transl ation by M.A .Kidd - Links have been inserted i nto the origi nal article for background on IIRSA, Y oreka Ãtame and photographs of this Ashananika school pro ject) Susta inability without Border sBy * Malu Ochoa April 24, 2011 Reg iona l Integration t o prote ct the Indi ge nous Peoples and t o Conserve Biodi versity on t he Frontier of Acre/ Brazil - Ucayali/Peru The border region of Acre (Brazil ) and U caya li (Pe ru) is one of t he areas formed by Indi ge nous Lands (Terras Indigenas), Units of Conservation, N ative Communities and Reserve Lands (Terras Reservadas), where indigenous and traditiona l popula tions live. In Acre the I ndigenous L ands and Units of Conservation form a lar ge mosai c with approximately 4,280,197 hectares or 30% of the length of the state. It is here that, in recent years, innovative social and so cio- environmental sus tainability have been developed by i ndigenous peop les, communities of the extractive reserve s, riparian (traditional river peoples) and their representative organizations. These actors have been organized for recognition and monitoring of their collective territori es and for sus tainable use and conservation of their forests. But on both sides of the border there are threats to the integrity of these territories and to the ways of life of the indi genous peoples and traditiona l popula tions, includi ng t he peoples in voluntary isolation. These threats that are being leverage d by major i nfras tructure projects set the agend a of gove rnments of the two countries that see k economic deve lopment and regional i nte gration, such as roa ds and prospec ting fo r oil a nd gas dril ling, and il licit and il legal ac tiviti es, such as clandestine exploitation of timbe r, predatory extraction of mineral s and drug trafficking. In Peru, as of 2000, the new Forest Law [L ei Fl orestal] and Wil dlife [F auna Sil vestre ] (L aw 2738) pe rmitted the creation of the "B osques de producci on pe rmanent", domain areas of the State dedicated e xcl usi vely to forest managem ent. Within the se, ar e def ined Units of Exploitation , large areas of forest for the r em oval of wood, by contract bidding, were delivered to bus iness es and legal en tities/persons in the form of 40 year concessi ons. According t o the Ins tituto Del Bien Comum - IBC, there are conce ss ions that amount to 50,000 hectares. It so happens however, that this legali ty contributes lar ge ly to the ill eg al logging in the region, becoming a true cha os for the indigenous populations. The great probl em with this "shredding/retailing" of t he Peruvian Amazon in the form of forest concessions was generated by the common practice of governments of the Amazon countri es, to create poli cies for the region with purely e conomic goal s. The intent ion is to remove the non-rene wable natural resour ces and to construct l arge sca le infrastructure projects (IIRSA ), without consi dering the neg ative impacts and, worse, without know ing the loca l demands and/or realities. In the Peruvian cas e, without the "knowledg e" of the existence of native communities and of populations of isol at ed indi ge nous peoples. It i s out of th e s ocio-envir onme ntal impacts that are already occurri ng, with the start of some of the cons truction and fruition of their intent, that s erious confli ct s begin to t ake sha pe in the Acre/U caya li bor der strip. One of t he
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most shocki ng is when these i nvasions cross the border in this frontier region, forging into Brazil ian terri tory, more
specifi cally in the offici al Terra Indigena Kampa (Indigenous Terri tory of Kampa) of the Amônea River and the Serra
do Divi sor National Park, and occasions the ill egal extraction of timber.
Equally or even more s hocking than the i ll egal extraction of timber i s the legalized predatory extraction, and this ,
with forest certification. This appl ies to the case of the logging company Forestal Venao S.R.L. created in 1996 to
work in the Ucayal i region. It began i ts work with five indi genous communities : Sawawo Hito 40, Nueva Sahuayo,
Santa Rosa, Nueva Victoria and El Dorado, supported the titli ng of these territories in exchange for the removal of
timber and us ed the labor avai lable in the community.
Sawawo Hito 40 was the firs t [vill age] to work in the logging, in 2005, i nitia ting the process of certification by the
SmartWood / Rainforest All iance, and in less than two years, the community of Sawawo found itself in serious
difficulty. One example of how companies with i nterests that are exclusi vely economic assume the rol e of the
Peruvian State that faci litates the procedures without monitoring the impacts caused in the region.
Articulation and exchange: political strategies of the indigenous peoples and traditional populations
The Comis são Pró-Índio do Acre (Pro-Indian Commiss ion of Acre), by means of its most recent program of Publi cPoli cies and Regional Articulation, has been working, in recent years, for the strengthening of the poli cies of
protection for the is olated indigenous peoples, for indigenous peoples and movements for the protection and
conservation of biodiversity of the Acre-Ucayal i border and for their quali fied participation in public spaces. Also,
the strengthening of the network of ar ticulation between the organizati ons of indigenous and traditional peoples
for exchange of information and, with this, for subsi diary strategies and actions that in conjunction influence in
publi c policy, are the focuses of this work.
We organize, produce and make public, documents with information and data about the border between Brazil
and Peru that in addition to vis ibility, show the area of i nstitutional activity. The gatherings and meetings that take
are held with representatives of soci al movements in Brazil and Peru, by means of the Trans -Border Working
Group (GTT- Grupo de Trabalho Trans fronteir iço), since 2005, have contributed to the exchange and update of
information about publi c policies, negotiations on the Peruvian and Brazil ian government infrastructure projects
and about legal and i ll egal economic activities taking place in the border region. Als o, we have provided
information from the reports from local communities about the negative impacts of these processes.
Because of my partici pation in the Seminar on Research Experiences, Records and Cultural Management by the
Indigenous and Traditional Community of Alto Juruá, held i n the Yorenka Ãtame Center in the municipal ity of
Marechal Thaumaturgo, on March 29 and 31, I heard important project experiences, records and research on the
knowledge that the populations of Juruá have in relation to the use and management of natural resources.
Experiences and knowledge that, at the same time, guarantee their survi val and provide important environmental
services to humanity.
The Seminar, which reunited rubber tappers and indi genous peoples, was , like so many other meetings, animportant and effici ent exchange of i deas and dreams: establi shment of partnerships for col lective consideration,
reaffirmation of the i mportance of the relations hip with the environment by those who live in the forest, of their
spi ritual and economic way of li fe, and ongoing work that enhances the forest with a vi ew toward sus tenance and
permanence for future generations.
In this meeting, once again meeting my friend Edwin Chota, Ashaninka leader of the Saweto community of Alto
Tamaya, a tributary of the Ucayal i River, able always to vis it the Apiwtxa community, which accordi ng to him is a
It was at the beginning of the binational coordination of Peru and Brazil that we approached from Apiwtxa and, in
the meetings of the Grupo de Trabal ho Trans fronteir iço, all these questions were di scus sed. It was from there that
recommendations went to governments as did the demands of the indigenous peoples. I would hope, from these,
that continuity be given to the work we started and that they respect our ideas. We need to understand what the
knowledge i s that governments have about i ndigenous peoples, especial ly those li ving on the border. It would
appear that our work is not valued, nor is the thinking of the people who, from within their culture are able toconceive of a lternatives that are not jus t a timber economy.
We are strengthening to resis t timber l abor, it is for this reas on we here i n Apiwtxa and in Yoreka Ãtame, because
it gives us strength to see their experiences.
We s eek a solution for our territory, our culture is in danger, seeing the chi ldren today, not fi nding a better future
for themselves, this i s why we want to establ is h a plan for li ving. This pla n does not yet exist in the minds of my
relatives. But, if there exists any project that we facil itate as much as we see from the Brazi li an si de, if there is an
ins titution exerting the effort and desi re to help us find a way out, we will not di sappear with time, our s truggle is
to prevent the destruction of our forest.
Isa ac Pianka:
The experience of working with forest management from within a vi ll age, does not fit. In the ca se of Sawawo, the
company had promised to provide ass is tance to the community and did not do s o. It stayed within the indi genous
land, with a management plan developed for i t and used the community. An indigenous community has a totally
different conception of the world and this way of seeing the world was thrown off for a mill ion errors . This left a
deep impact on Sawawo, on both the forest and on the people. We noticed the difference when we, as cous ins,
brothers, of the same people, were received like strangers. We realized they were being manipulated.
When Sawawo began the work, the company soon planned another community for continuing the timber
exploitation across the Amônea river. The famil ies of Sawawo tried to live, but the company reali zed it would be
problem because of our interference. Then, i t brought in Ashaninka from other regions of Peru and createdanother Native Community, which is "Shawaya."
The ‘green seal ’, because of Sawawo, can become a l ie. People who buy their product do not know that it i s kil ling
a population that possess es important knowledge for humanity. This does not deal with just a mahogany tree. The
cultural destructuring of a people i s the end of a mill ennial knowledge; no pri ce can be pl aced on this .
Benk Ashaninka:
The families have created a great dependency with the company. Now that it has left, they have become
dis oriented, thinking that you ca n only survive with the i ll usion of the outsi de world. Abandoning their territory,
they will foll ow the company or go to the municipa lity. Seven famil ies have migrated to our community and are
under the impressi on that they will not survive in their own region. But, they are wrong, I observed that nature has
been abl e to recuperate and, despi te not having any more cedar and mahogany, there is s till great wealth in
Sawawo.
In 2010, Forestal Venao left the region to avoid discredit to its image. But Edwin reports that the company is
returning to the Alto Juruá, right next to the Ashaninka/Kaxinawá Indigenous Land of the Breu River, at the request
of some communities. In fact, it is more a marketing strategy and someone viewing from a dis tance may think this